Saturday, 15 October 2016

Halfling [Race-as-class] for 5e (RedNext B/-5e hack)

Class design is really where the designers put in the highest level of complexity into the system. Lots of unique sub systems (battemaster, warlock), maneuvers that break the action economy in unique ways, implied strategic build paths, etc. All stuff I want to simplify away with RedNext - take away the excess of moving parts.

But even besides that, there is lots to consider - Every level gets a bennie of some sort (in three tiers), some hardcore class defining ones, others thematic. And impact of bennies is asymmetrical from class to class (except 5th and 11th). And all of them have frontloaded abilities that are on the surface overpowered.

Weighing all these up and when to put the big ones is a lot to consider - Making the Halfling took time! Dwarf and elf might be easier purely because I now have a better grasp of the ideas behind class design, but they wont be up overnight.

Designer Notes on the 5e Halfling

For the Halfling, I lined up Fighter, Rogue and Ranger abilities on each level in a spreadsheet (assymetrical power curve per level makes it difficult to assess the weight of each bennie on each level), made another list of abilities (mainly feats and sub-race abilities) that would be nice to insert, filtered out the bennies that didn't fit a halfling build and started looking according to the following criteria from Menzer's basic:

-2 AC against large.

Best Saves

+1 missile weapons & initiative

Hiding (90% outdoors, 33 in dungeon).

Besides this, my own gamist analysis of what that makes the Halfling and what it ought to be:

A mix of fighter and rogue - In many ways a civilised, slightly less martial, ranger. But also a build that, while reminiscent in style of these two, is suitably distinct from both and Based on a different 'rules theme' (re-rolls, avoiding damage). ie, Halfling may thematically be a rangery fighter/rogue, but they should have a different 'rules feel' and benny niche to them than just smashing those two together (ie, less of the 'my rogue got a new bennie!' - 'neat. my halfling got the same').

High survivability and luck

less outstanding (tier 1) abilities, but more tier 2 ones to make a more rounded and bit broader class than the others. Less of the flashy 'nova' abilities (Sneak Attack, Action Surge) which is rather un-hobitty, but someone who can hold their own in most any situation. Outstanding feature is as a scout.

Douwe Dabbert - Not sure if American readers will know him, but it's a classic here in Denmark. Douwe is to me the archetype of a drifter halfling who made it to old age

A dash of Kender (sorry grognards, but take out the silliness and they are a great adventuring spin on Halflings).

Without further ado, here is the first draft of the 5e Halfling-as-Class (note the intentional lack of build options). Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.Halfling - Racial Class 5e (PDF)

Halfling - Racial Class for 5th Edition

You are a Halfling – While most
of your kin are content with a rural life, rarely venturing even as
far as the neighboring village, that is not you. You are struck by a well known but
rare impulse among the little folk – Wanderlust. You are rootless,
a drifter, drawn to see what lies beyond the next hill.

Your travels take you into the
world of men and dangerous lands, demanding that you make the most of
the virtues of your people to survive. While the big folk may be
stronger, more cunning and even wield magic, you are nimble, sturdy,
brave and lucky – Other races may make bigger waves, but halflings
unassumingly survive in the face of many threats larger people would
not.

Size:
Halflings average about 3 feet tall and weigh about 40 pounds. Your
size is Small.

Speed: Your
base walking speed is 25 feet.

Level

Title

Proficiency
Bonus

Features

1st

Halfling
Veteran

+2

Lucky, Brave, Nimble, Stealthy,

Durable, Wanderlust

2nd

Halfling
Warrior

+2

Eye for Distance, Halfling’s
Knack, Botanist

3rd

Halfling
Swordmaster

+2

Poultices

4th

Halfling
Hero

+2

Ability Score Improvement

5th

Halfling
Swashbuckler

+3

Stalker’s
Dodge

6th

Halfling
Myrmidon

+3

Extra
Attack

7th

Halfling
Champion

+3

Escape
the horde , Herbalist

8th

Halfling
Sheriff

+3

Ability Score Improvement

9th

Lord

+4

Indomitable (one use)

10th

+4

Halfling
Fortitude

11th

+4

Volley

12th

+4

Ability Score Improvement

13th

+5

Indomitable II

14th

+5

Stalker

15th

+5

Magic
Resilience, Slippery

16th

+5

Ability Score Improvement

17th

+6

Indomitable

18th

+6

Elusive

19th

+6

Ability Score Improvement

20th

+6

Stroke of Luck

1st Level Abilities

Lucky: When you
roll a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving
throw, you can re-roll the die and must use the new roll.

Brave: You have
advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Nimble: You can
move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than
yours.

Naturally Stealthy:
You can attempt to hide even when you are lightly obscured or
obscured only by a creature that is at least one size larger than
you.

Furthermore, you can move
stealthily at a normal pace.

Wanderlust: You
are a master of navigating the outdoors and react with swift and
decisive action when attacked. This grants you the following
benefits:

• You ignore difficult
terrain.

• You have advantage on
initiative rolls.

• On your first turn
during combat, you have advantage on attack rolls against creatures
that have not yet acted.

You gain the following
benefits when traveling for an hour or more:

• Difficult terrain
doesn’t slow your group’s travel.

• Your group can’t
become lost except by magical means.

• Even when you are
engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging,
navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.

• When you forage, you
find twice as much food as you normally would.

2nd Level Abilities

Eye for Distance: You
gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged and thrown
weapons.

Halfling’s Knack:
You can take a bonus action on each of your turns in combat. This
action can be used only to take the Help, Hide or Use an Object
action.

Botanist: You are
a master of herbs, both for their taste and medicinal value. You have
mastered a variety of special recipes, allowing you to prepare
special dishes with useful effects. You gain the following benefits:

• You gain proficiency
with cook’s utensils. If you are already proficient with them, you
add double your proficiency bonus to checks you make with them.

• During a long rest,
you can spend an hour to prepare and serve an especially nutrient
meal that helps you and your allies recover from the rigors of
adventuring, provided you have suitable food, cook’s utensils, and
special herbs and spice on hand. Such herbs can be gathered
beforehand with an hour of foraging.

The meal serves up to six
people, and each person who eats it regains and may spend an
additional Hit Die at the end of the long rest.

3rd Level Abilities

Poultices:
Your herbal mastery allows you to create especially potent poultices
to combine with a healer’s kit to mend wounds and get your allies
back on their feet. You gain the following benefits:

• When
you use a healer's kit with your poultices to stabilize a dying
creature, that creature also regains 1 hit point.

• As
an action. you can spend one use of a healer's kit and poultice to
tend to a creature and restore 1d6 + plus additional hit points equal
to the twice the creature's maximum Hit Dice.

You
may prepare a number of poultices equal to your Wisdom modifier
(minimum 1) in similar fashion to meals, as described under Botanist.

You
can prepare both meal and poultice during a long rest, but recipients
can benefit only from one of poultice or meal per long rest (ie, a
recipient who healed from a meal during a long rest and then received
a poultice would gain no benefit from either on the next long rest),

The
poultices you create cannot be applied by anyone but you. After 24
hours, any poultices that you have not used lose their potency.

4th Level Abilities

Ability Score
Improvement: Increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or
two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase
an ability score above 20 using this feature.

5th Level Abilities

Stalker’s Dodge:
Whenever a creature you can see attacks you and does not have
advantage, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the
creature’s attack roll against you. You can use this feature before
or after the attack roll is made, but it must be used before the
outcome of the roll is determined.

6th Level Abilities

Extra Attack: You
can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack
action on your turn.

7th
Level Abilities

Escape the Horde:
Opportunity attacks against you are made with disadvantage.

As an action, you can
inspect a drink or plate of food within 5 feet of you and determine
whether it is poisoned, provided that you can see and smell it.

Moreover, You can spend
an hour preparing a fresh concoction to cure one poison effect on the
creature you are applying it to. It only works when consumed
immediately.

8th Level Abilities

Ability Score
Improvement: Increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or
two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase
an ability score above 20 using this feature.

9th Level Abilities

Indomitable: You
can re-roll a saving throw that you fail. If you do so, you must use
the new roll, and you can't use this feature again until you finish a
long rest.

10th Level Abilities

Halfling Fortitude:
You have Proficiency with all saves.

Furthermore, you have
advantage on saves against poison, and resistance to poison damage.

11th Level Abilities

Volley: You can
use your action to make a ranged attack against any number of
creatures within 10 feet of a point you can see within your weapon’s
range. You must have ammunition for each target, as normal, and you
make a separate attack roll for each target.

12th Level Abilities

Ability Score
Improvement: Increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or
two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase
an ability score above 20 using this feature.

13th Level Abilities

Indomitable II:
You can use this feature twice between long rests.

14th Level Abilities

Cunning Stalker:
You gain the following benefits:

When you are hidden from
a creature and miss it with a ranged weapon attack, making the attack
doesn't reveal your position.

Additionally, you may take the Use an Object action to activate magic items.

Slippery: You gain
+2 to AC against melee attacks made by Medium-sized creatures or
larger.

16th Level Abilities

Ability Score
Improvement: Increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or
two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase
an ability score above 20 using this feature.

17th Level Abilities

Indomitable III: You
can use this feature thrice between long rests

18th Level Abilities

Elusive: You are
so evasive that attackers rarely gain the upper hand against you. No
attack roll has advantage against you while you aren't incapacitated.

19th Level Abilities

Ability Score
Improvement: Increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or
two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase
an ability score above 20 using this feature.

20th Level Abilities

Stroke of Luck: You
have an uncanny knack for succeeding when you need to. If your attack
misses a target within range, you can turn the miss into a hit.
Alternatively, if you fail an ability check, you can treat the d20
roll as a 20. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until
you finish a short or long rest.

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About This Blog

Inspired by, but not limited to, the OSR, this is a blog about my musings on D&D in general, about my B/X-style hack of 5e called "Into the Unknown" I am looking to turn into a publication and about the Mythlands of Erce, the setting I am also hoping to publish eventually.